2013. What a year, right? Lots of great games, great books, great TV and gre....pretty good movies at the movie theater. Well, it's all over now so here's a list of my favorites...'cause I'm bored and that's what I do when I'm bored.

Favorite Games

The Last of Us: You want to save the world? Play Ni No Kuni. You want a unique story? Play The Stanley Parable. The Last of Us isn't concerned with save-the-earth antics (exactly) or original storytelling. Instead it tells a gripping, yet personal tale about survivors Joel and Ellie and how their experiences change them in their trek across a Post-Apocalyptic America. The easy-to-use combat and crafting systems compliment some of the best graphics on the PS3 making TLOU a must-play for anyone who owns the console.

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The Wolf Among Us: Episode One: Can only the first episode of a projected five-part game be considered Game of the Year? I don't know, but when it's as awesome of The Wolf Among Us it gets my vote! This spin-off of Bill Willingham's comic, about Fairy-Tale characters living in modern times puts you in the role of Sheriff Bigby Wolf as he tries to solve a murder in "Fabletown". Great characters, writing and atmosphere; despite some glitchy graphics and intrusive load-times this game had my attention in it's entire, three-hour play-through.

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Bioshock Infinite: If I had to vote for best gaming-duo in 2013 it'd be Booker and Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite (or the Lutece twins, it's neck-and-neck). No, the story doesn't hold up to scrutiny nor is main-villain Comstock all that compelling but Irrational's sequel to it's 2007 hit has more imagination than all the games of 2013 combined! Columbia is beautiful and horrifying all at the same time (especially as it comments on America's violent history and it's similarities with current-events) and the Skyrail adds an awesome gaming-element to the First-Person Shooting.

Vicious: The Archetypes of the Superheros and Supervillains are done away with in this deliciously dark revenge story by V.E. Schwab. Ex-convict Victor is not what you'd call a "good" person (in fact he's pretty selfish and un-empathetic) but even he can understand that his former friend, and mass-murdering super-power Eliot needs to be stopped. There's nothing pretentious here, just good story-telling as we see Victor's plan slowly coming together with the help of a couple allies (as well as other characters with "powers" of their own).

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Brilliance: While the characters in Marcus Sakey's book don't have "powers" exactly, they're naturally gifted enough to read poeple thoughts by their body language, predict patterns in seconds and manipulate stocks to the point of crashing the market. A worried government tries to put a leash on these "abnorms" and main character Nick Cooper, a gifted himself is tasked with hunting down one's who've gone rogue. It's all very X-Men-lite but Brilliance asks some hard questions of it's characters, especially when Nick himself is forced to go undercover. A great book through and through.

Also liked: White Fire, The Great North Road, Abbadon's Gate and Dirty Wars

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That One Movie I liked

The World's End: Calling Edgar Wright's third film in his "Cornetto" trilogy the "only" film I liked may seem like I'm settling when it's actually a pretty great movie on it's own. I don't know if it's Simon Pegg and Nick Frost switching up their usual roles (Pegg as the loose-cannon to Frost's straight-man) or that Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine and Eddie Marsan fit so well with the material. In any case, The World's End takes some pretty out-of-this-world turns but never loses sight of it's central story of five friends on a bender confronting issues of the past.

Also Liked (but wanted to like a bit more): Pacific Rim, Iron Man 3, Man of Steel and Star Trek Into Darkness.

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On TV

Hannibal/The Americans:The Hannimericans? The Ameribals? Nah, I couldn't choose one over the other (and don't want to spend any more space than I have to) so I'll just say Bryan Fuller's stylish take on Hannibal Lector (as well as the characters from the book 'Red Dragon') may be the most compelling brought to screen. The Americans is a terrific espionage series set in the 1980's and mixes spy-action and family dynamics while never losing sight of either. Both shows have great acting and writing, not to mention clever use of music and atmosphere.

Also watched: Broadchurch, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Banshee, Sons of Anarchy and Da Vinci's Demons

Well, that's the end of my list. What were your favorite entertainments this year?

When an experience scrambles my brains as much as Bioshock Infinite I find it's wise to have a standby game in order to withdraw and re-evaluate. These last couple weeks I've been diving into Arkane Studios' Dishonored, and while I don't think it has the story-telling chops of Irrational Games' mega-hit I found the gameworld of Dunwall to be just as engaging and it's open-ended gameplay approach very refreshing.

Dishonored casts you in the role of Corvo Attano, bodyguard to the Empress of the industrial city of Dunwall. After the Empress is assassinated and her daughter Emily kidnapped, Corvo finds himself framed and forced to align himself with a resistance group dedicated to finding Emily and taking out the assassination conspirators. While I liked how Dishonored's story played out I have to admit it was quite predictable (gee, you think someone's gonna betray the group?) and the character's surprisingly boring. Despite having professionals like Chloe Grace Moretz, Lena Headey and Brad Dourif in the cast the voice acting is (purposely?) restrained with only Michael Madsen a standout as the assassin Daud.

Sorry, but your emotions are just too distracting...apparently....

The underplayed characterizations are a shame because the world of Dishonored is filled to the brim with personality and lore! Plague-rats and zombie-like victims infest the sewers and crumbling houses of Dunwall while scientists conduct twisted experiments with Whale-oil and the upper-class throw extravigant parties, unaware of the city falling apart around them. Characters themselves look like something out of a gothic political cartoon while enemies patrol the streets on stilted machines right out of a Tim Burton picture. Dishonored's world is also packed with manuscripts that detail the history and mythology of Dunwall. It's nice to have a gameworld you can sink your teeth into and on my second playthrough I'm still discovering new things about Dunwall and it's inhabitance.

Artbook please!

That Dishonored's sense of exploration and discovery plays so directly into the gameplay is impressive indeed. By setting you loose in the world with only an objective and your own devices, all nine of the game's missons felt like a personal experience rather than a pre-scripted event. Each level is nicely filled with side-quests and characters that can help you reach your target and provide alternative means for dealing with objectives, but the game wisely leaves the means up to you and no route I took ever felt like something the game designers laid out for me.

Don't ask me. You're the assassin....who used to be a bodyguard....who's now an assassin...for some reason

If I had a complaint about Dishonored it'd be the chaos system. While I appreciate that you can play Dishonored without killing anyone, eleminating enemies in a violent manner raises Dunwall's "chaos" rating which decides the game's ending. If you want the more peaceful ending you won't be using half of Corvo's abilities and while sneaking around enemies can be fun it's no where near as satisfying as summoning a hoard of rats to devour an enemy or freezing time to pluck an attacker's bullets out of the air.

Possessing an animal can't compare to the glee of diving onto a tallboy and driving them through with my sword

While the story could be better told and the chaos system seems misguided, Dishonored's freedom in gameplay and sense of wonder in it's world-building made it a perfect follow-up to my Bioshock Infinite marathon. What did you think of Dishonored? What other games would do you use as a genre palate-cleanser?

Wow, it's only February and I've already played some great video games. Well, I think their great anyways. Here's a couple titles I recommend trying out and one I'm still playing through (and sadly one I lost interest in).

Fire Emblem: Awakening- The Escapist said Fire Emblem: Awakening was worth buying a 3DS for....so I decided to take them for their word, and with Gamestop offering a special 3DS with Awakening pre-installed it all seemed like fate. It was totally worth it as I've spent many an hour curled up on the couch, getting lost in this multi-hour tactical RPG at the palm of my hand. Designing my own JRPG avatar (a first for me), picking the load-out for each of my soldiers, starting relationships with fellow warriors (developed as much ON the battlefield as off) and being treated to some of the most beautiful anime cutscenes I've ever seen (mixed with my love for tactical games) make Fire Emblem Awakening one of the best games I've played in a long time.

DmC: Dante's new attitude has probably divided gamers as much as his reworked appearance and original story. Personally, I love it! Not only is the combat in DmC just as wild and crazy as the franchise predecessors (yes, I kept spamming the Tornado Ability), Ninja Theory remembered to amp up the difficulty adding new monsters and enemy abilities with each mode of play. That for once I actually cared about the characters and story in a Devil May Cry game is just icing on the cake!

Still Playing:

Dead Space 3: I'll never understand how the Dead Space games get to be classified as "survival horror". I never felt vulnerable, scared or even startled as I tore through Necromorphs like Jason Voorhees with a plasma-gun. I never ran out of ammo either, which would've been okay because hero Isaac Clarke's Boot-stomp is an unstoppable weapon in and of itself! The Dead Space games are a lot of fun however, especially if you're into third-person shooters with amazing graphics! Dead Space 3 is so far just as solid as the first two, and while I'd honestly rather be playing a "true" survival-horror game (has it been that long since Fatal Frame 2?) I can enjoy a good spectacle....at least for now.

Traded In:

Ni No Kuni: I know a lot of people who really like Ni No Kuni. I certainly did for the first couple hours, getting involved in young Oliver's quest to save his mother and meeting hosts of charming, JRPG characters (Drippy's a delight!). Unfortunately good writing and Studi Ghibli's amazing graphics could only do so much as I spent hours clicking through numerous (unspoken) dialogue boxes, fighting through long-ass dungeons (with no save points inbetween) and sorting through what seemed to be an endless amount of tutorials. I'm sure gamers who stuck with it were well-rewarded but after playing more progressive-minded JRPG's like Xenoblade Ni No Kuni's old-fashioned game design was too much of an investment for me.

For some gamers 2012 was the year for indie games like Mark of the Ninja and Journey to shine. For others it was the year for smart action games like Spec Ops: The Line and Far Cry 3. For me it was the year for tactical games, franchise shooters that pushed smarts and strategy over action and story. Here's my list of favorites from this last year.

Hitman: Absolution- If I had never played a Hitman game before Hitman:Absolution would've been my 2012 Game of the Year! Smooth controls with accessible stealth options (being able to take dudes out from cover), graphics that could fit thousands of people onto one screen at a time (letting you blend in a tail a mark with ease) and a story that (for once) wasn't half-bad....or was at least easy to understand. Sadly some of the staples of the Hitman series were missing (choosing your own load-out for single-player missions, being able to plan hits using overhead maps) while some decisions just seemed baffling (multiple levels for one objective). Hitman Absolution is still a great game though, and nothing beats the feeling of pulling off an assassination without ever being spotted.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier- While the story can't match Call of Duty, let alone Spec Ops:The Line neither of those shooters come close to the teamwork-inspired gameplay found in Future Soldier. Cowboy it, running and gunning into a battle and you probably won't survive. Plan your engagements carefully, sneak through the battlefield and mark targets for your squadmates and you'll be rewarded. Your squad A.I. is smart too as you watch your crew line up their shots without being seen (if an enemy saw me it was my fault), then scramble to protect each other once firefights erupted. Much like Hitman Absolution, Future Soldier lacks some of the Ghost Recon customization (you're stuck with 30K, Kozak, Pepper and Ghost Leader as your squad) and some of the missions do get "action-y" at points. But when it comes to tactical gameplay and creative missions structures (if Splinter Cell: Blacklist is half as cool as Kozak rescuing the Russian President then I'm sold!) I can't think of shooter last year that was half as smart as Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown- If there's one word that can describe every game on this list it's "addictive", but I don't think I poured as many hours into Ghost Recon and Hitman than I did in this reboot of XCOM: UFO Defense. Instead of reinventing itself in another genre (*cough* *FPS* *cough* *Syndicate* *cough*) Firaxis brought XCOM back to it's turn-based roots with squad-customization, research allocation, projects to engineer, weapons to build and hours upon hours of strategic gameplay! Unlocking a new piece of weaponry to research, executing a mission with no casualties, watching a squad member I've kept alive since the first mission level up with some awesome abilities are all among my favorite gaming moments.